Key Master
by zelda3469
Summary: Mai has yet to realize how truly awful she is at arcade games. Naru, on the other hand, is quite the master. Fluff.


Bright lights flashed in Mai's eyes as she attempted to concentrate on the scene before her. Tense, she reached a hand out and steadied herself against the glass pane. Her throat tightened as her breathing momentarily ceased.

Just a few more seconds… She only had to wait just a moment...

"Aha!" Mai grinned as she jumped away from the glass. She watched in anticipation as the plastic, yellow key inside of the machine slowly moved back. Chewing her lip, Mai clasped her hands together, hoping that she had finally managed to win! Hell, she had nearly spent her paycheck on the stupid game. One hundred yen a play didn't seem like much when an iphone was a stake, and Mai was in need of a new cell phone.

As the key reached the small hole in the plastic wall, Mai shrieked. She had been so close! The very tip of the key had been only half a millimeter off!

The key retreated back to its original position, spinning, as if to taunt the young woman playing for the unwinnable prize. Mai reached into her pocket for another coin, and groaned. It was her last one. She really only had one more chance, and she knew she could do it! There was no way she could mess it up and-

"Mai?"

She nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of that voice. Of all people to run into...and at the mall of all place! Since when did her employer ever go to the mall?! It wasn't like he ever did any real shopping or anything. As far as Mai knew, the only stores Naru visited stocked actual books and nothing else.

"Uh," Mai turned her head back as she clutched her last coin in her hand, "hey Naru! Fancy meeting you here! Hehe…"

The darkly clad teen raised a brow, his arms crossed. He had been watching his assistant for quite sometime, and was rather displeased that she was totally throwing away her money on a game she would never win. The constant mumbling about how close she had been followed by multiple failed attempts...it really made Naru wonder how dumb Mai really was. Could she not see a scham staring her in the face?

...Clearly not…

"You do realize this game is a waste of your time, and earnings," Naru deadpanned.

Mai's nervous smile widened as a few tiny beads of sweat began to trickle down the side of her forehead, "Well...I thought it was worth a few tries! I mean, I really could use a new phone since the screen on mine is totally busted, and it seemed like a fair deal and-"

Naru held a hand to his head before cutting off Mai's ramble, "It's designed so that you lose almost every time, Mai. You would have been better off saving for another phone. Really, your odds of winning are about one in seven hundred..." And that was if it was a relatively fair machine.

"What?! You think my aim is that bad?!" Mai cried, flailing her arms.

Naru rolled his eyes. She couldn't understand that it was rigged, could she?

"No...though your aim isn't the greatest. The point is that you are only throwing your money away on such stupid things," he gave her a stern look. "How much, exactly, have you spent on this game anyway?"

Mai swallowed, rubbing the coin in her fingers with the pad of her thumb, "Not that much…"

"Mai…"

"Okay, maybe half my paycheck…"

Naru's features didn't change. His eyes continued to bore into her, demanding she tell the truth.

Whining, Mai looked to the floor, "Maybe all of it…"

As he pinched the bridge of his nose, Naru stepped forward. He took the last of Mai's pay from her hand, a piddly one hundred yen coin, and pushed her aside. After looking at the machine for a moment, Naru inserted the coin. He glanced down at the controls before looking into the machine again. His touch on the button forcing the plastic key to rise in the cabinet was light. Naru actually wasn't all that focused on it. He had his own, guaranteed, way to win.

Heart pounding, Mai anxiously watched as Naru used the last of her money to play the game. If he lost… Mai's whole paycheck would have totally been wasted for nothing. She really, really hoped he'd win it…

Once the key was right where he wanted it, Naru focused on the gears that had pulled it up the inside of the machine. They stalled, thought it wouldn't have been really noticeable to anyone but Naru.

Slowly, the key moved back. Mai was practically biting her nails as it drew closer and closer to the opening in that prize wall.

Naru's lips turned up as the key effortlessly passed through the hole in the plastic wall and spun. The iphone was yanked forward before it dropped to the draw at the bottom of the machine. Naru knelt down to take the iphone from the prize door as Mai excitedly bounced by his side.

"That was amazing, Naru! Thank you! Thank you so much-"

"Thanks for what?" Naru couldn't help but smirk as he rose to full height.

Mai stared dumbly at her boss. He was going to let her have the phone...right? After all, she had spent half the afternoon trying to win it.

"You...you won it."

"I did," Naru stated as he slipped the box into the pocket on the inside of his coat.

Eyebrows shooting up like rockets, Mai pouted, "But...but that way my last coin! Had I played it would have been mine! And you don't need a new phone! You got one a little while ago! That isn't fair!"

Amused, Naru took a single coin from his pocket and tossed it to Mai. She caught it, though she still seemed rather upset and confused. As Mai looked at the coin in her hands she frowned. One hundred yen…

"I've paid you back for the game," he said as he turned away and began to walk.

While Naru began to make his way back to the entrance of the mall, he could hear Mai hurling curses and insults at him. He glanced back at her, a knowing smile gracing his features. Mai had completely frozen when Naru looked at her and a pink blush had worked its way onto her cheeks.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Mai, and don't be late, or I'll doc your pay."

 **AN: Just a fluffy little story I had rattling around in the depths of my brain. I really wish I was talented with a pencil. I honestly think it would have been better as a set of manga panels, but oh well. I can write (kinda, maybe) and that works for now!**


End file.
